Topic: My occupations

[racing33]

BobbyR,
I would love to mold parts for motorcycles. I swore I would have nothing to do with the automotive molding industry, it is way to cyclical for me. In this business you are either #$%* and elbows or standing around twiddling your fingers.
Kinda off topic here, but how in the world do you guys/gals include an individuals quotes in your posts?
Bruce

[GoatBaSS]

Yose guys are so cool. The grass is always greener.

When I started on this board I was a bartender/restaurant guy which i had been doing off and on for the last 18 years since I was 15.
The job I just quit in June was customer service manager for a local appliance and electronics repair company. People at their worst, all the time. We have an unhealthy attachment to electricity and and all the things that need electricity to work. TV is not a fundemental right, it is entertainment. A dishwasher is a gift, but some people...
Well, it was causing health and mental issues six days a week 9 hours a day...
One night about a year ago, at supper, my daughter who is two and a half at that time looks at me and asks "Whats wrong papa?"
Well that tells me a few things. I am bringing work home and I need to stop and get out.
Then after two weeks of post sinus and tonsil surgery pain and recovery (sleep apnia treatment), I decide to go back to school.
So with grapic design studies, I work as crew chief for Air Alabama, the local hot air baloon company. I get up at four a.m. and chase the baloon until it lands. then I go to my part time job at a friends pawn shop. That is what a degree in philosophy and art will get you, in my case, anyway.

I got out and have never been more sure of my direction. Although I am writing this while I should be prepping for finals.
All in due time.
I will have two weeks off from school to get the rat cb running after thursday next! Wahoo!

Thanks once again for this forum. I am happy to be a part of it. Although I do tend to fall off point quite a bit...

[putnaja1]

I'm humbled by all you guys. Seems like a like a lot of education out there. I'm just a dumb ass mechanic. Got "hooked" on it
in 1975,  after successfully doing a top end rebuild on a 750 k4, armed with no more than a clymer and a small set for Craftsman
tools. (dealer said it needed a valve job, I discovered a disconneceted choke flap on number 1, AFTER doing the valve job) Thought I was Superman. I was 17. Notice what it says underneath my avatar...

I paid my way through school as a mechanic- and those guys humbled me!  I used to work on cars and things all through highschool, and summertimes I would work in my uncles shop to get experience.  Then got a job at a Ford dealership.  I had all these visions in my head that all the mechanics were gonna be and look like "Kooter" from the Dukes of Hazzard!  Basically I was completely wrong!  Lots and lots of very smart guys- accomplished problem solvers all of them.  At lunch time, a lot of guys would pull out a chess board and they were good too.  It totally changed my image of these guys..

[Rocking-M]

Yose guys are so cool. The grass is always greener.

One night about a year ago, at supper, my daughter who is two and a half at that time looks at me and asks "Whats wrong papa?"
Well that tells me a few things. I am bringing work home and I need to stop and get out.

I got out and have never been more sure of my direction. Although I am writing this while I should be prepping for finals.
All in due time.
I will have two weeks off from school to get the rat cb running after thursday next! Wahoo!

Thanks once again for this forum. I am happy to be a part of it. Although I do tend to fall off point quite a bit...

Go for it Goat, got to enjoy our work cause it stinks other wise. Take it easy, Robert

[kghost]

<<<<<<<<<<<I drive one of them thingies

I fix one of them things!! 

I fix them thingies too..... A&P with an IA to boot. 

I can actually relate to the plastic molding. Been a Freight dog for years and its all I want to do.

I'm the guy that comes and picks up the bins of plastic parts when you guys are behind. We throw them in the aiplane and haul them to whatever plant is in danger of shutting down due to lack of parts for the assembly line

[Tim.]

<<<<<<<<<<<I drive one of them thingies

I fix one of them things!! 

I ride in one of them thingies!  Flying back and forth across the country.  Run billing operations for a national telephone company.

[HondaJay]

Kinda off topic here, but how in the world do you guys/gals include an individuals quotes in your posts?
Bruce

When you go to make a post the previous posts show up at the bottom of the screen... Just find the one you want and click on 'insert quote' on the right!  It automatically puts the whole thing in but you can delete part if you want as long as you dont delete the code in brackets.

I paid my way through school as a mechanic- and those guys humbled me!  I used to work on cars and things all through highschool, and summertimes I would work in my uncles shop to get experience.  Then got a job at a Ford dealership.  I had all these visions in my head that all the mechanics were gonna be and look like "Kooter" from the Dukes of Hazzard!  Basically I was completely wrong!  Lots and lots of very smart guys- accomplished problem solvers all of them.  At lunch time, a lot of guys would pull out a chess board and they were good too.  It totally changed my image of these guys..

Now that I think about it I would have to say that problem solving is my business.  Fixing electronics, working on bikes, and engineering... most of it comes down to problem solving.  Its a great feeling to do some creative engineering and solve a problem in a way most people wouldnt even think of!

I just broke the screen off my cell phone yesterday by stepping on it.. Verizon said they couldnt fix it and wanted me to pay $80 plus $30 activation for a much worse phone(or over $150 + activation for a decent one).  I took the phone apart and found that only one connection had been severed and it was separate from the main electronics board.  Within minutes I tracked someone down that had upgraded from the same phone I just broke, paid them $40 for it, switched out the board and solved the problem for 1/3 the cost!

[Ebrandon]

I currently work at a Children's museum. I am in charge of all the science related stuff, from big things like exhibit development to little things like feeding the "creepy crawlies" It pretty cool. For most of my post college life I have done outdoor education- taking a group of kids on hikes and into caves and stuff - that is kick ass work, I LOVE it. I also occasionally pick up work as an "adventure guide" doing climbing, repelling and rope course.

[nickjtc]

What an interesting group of people you guys are!

When I first came to Canada 30 years ago people in the know said that the average person here would go through 4 jobs in their career. Coming from 'one job, school to grave' England I just laughed, especially because I was still a newbie in the optical biz. Now, much later in life (and perhaps wiser?) I can see that those people were right.

Oftentimes what we dream of doing as a kid just doesn't work out, or becomes stale, or actually affects our health. Been there, done that on all three counts. So I am interested to read the twists and turns that people have gone through to end up where they are now..... And you younger guys out there: have dreams and work towards fulfilling them.

[mennedy]

After a successful career in the hotel business in Toronto, the job wore out and I moved to Calgary to attend university.

I started in government in 81 and had a great career in the Tax Department until 2004 when that job wore out too (but it gave me a pension).

I was sorta lost/very depressed and wandered the streets until I walked into the local school bus company down the street. They had me in training that afternoon. I now drive the biggest equipment including the coaches and I love it. It taught me that size does matter! It is a must that you like kids and I love 'em. One student said to me as we arrived at school on his first day, "This bus rocks!"

My labour of love is Soccer. I took my 4 year old son up to the local community field for his first game and low and behold I'm the coach with 5 other kids to watch.  I have coached, taught coaching and been on Soccer Boards (UGHHHH!). My 4 yr old is now 23, we have our own team in the men's league and have collected a wonderful group of guys - interestingly enough, all look and act like my son! Go figure! At the last practice, I set up a drill and was the ball retriever. I stood looking out onto the field at the players all running and laughing and thought, "If I died right now and right here, I would die a happy and fulfilled man."

About the time I started driving, I bought my 550K; so, after 45 years of management I am now trying to learn the patience, creativity and logical thought of you mechanical scientists. It is a slow and tedious process but I will move from the darkness towards the light and learn to fix those two damned bikes!

Marty

[bill440cars]

     After High School, I spent 4yrs active Air Force (1 yr vehicle maint. & 3 yrs jet aircraft/ 1 & 2 eng fighters), 23 yrs Civil Service (worked my way up from a mechanic, Direct Support mechanic "replacing major components & doing major repairs" and finally to Equipment Inspector "Doing inspections of the work done by the others, Weapons inspection and ordering parts needed for repairs") which also meant having to be a member of the Army Reserves (started as a mechanic and, after a while became the Motor Sgt for the unit and by the time I had retired from the Reserves, I'd been the Motor Sgt for 3 different type of units and the Maintenance Supervisor for a Direct Support Maint. unit). I'm retired from Civil Service and the Army Reserves. Spent 3 yrs working in the parts room for a GMC dealership doing shipping and receiving, taking care of the warranty returns and now for the past 7yrs (and counting),
I've been working as an aide for 2 young men who are somewhat physically and mentally challenged.

                                                                 Later on, Bill

[sparty]

I am an amateur gynecologist.

Sparty

[Roach Carver]

I am an amateur gynecologist.

Sparty

aren't we all.

[racing33]

 Kghost,
My hats off to you guys. You guys are the ones that save our asses when we get behind on the production shipments. General Motors is quite hard on us if we do actually shut down one of their lines. Needless to say we will do whatever it takes to ge the product to them on time. Even the huge expiditing bill is nothing compared to the charge for shutting down a line at G.M.

[GroovieGhoulie]

I'm in the Army.

[fishtoft]

Also an injection moulding technician (rtd) for a motor manufacturer, making parts for Ford and Jaguar and before that I worked in engineering making spark plugs (motorcraft) now I'm a couch potato.

[Ratfink]

Im a cabinet maker now. But i have had many careers. I also build acoustic guitars and mandolins as a side business from home.

[hopterfixer]

Any guesses what I do???

[nickjtc]

Any guesses what I do???

Help put drug addicts back on the straight and narrow?

[cbjunkie]

pusherman?? 

[hopterfixer]

Not exactly... I fix hopters (what my daughter calls a helicopter).  Actually just one EMS helicopter, and some old airplanes (with the round engines) on the side. 

[toycollector10]

Does anyone remember "Dud 'n Pete"?  The British comedy duo from the 1970's.....Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, right. They were doing the 'what was the worst job you ever had' skit and Peter Cook says, "The worst job I ever had was plucking lobsters out of Jane Mansfield's arse"... Zany but memorable, as I have remembered it ha ha.....

[nickjtc]

Does anyone remember "Dud 'n Pete"?  The British comedy duo from the 1970's.....Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, right.

'Not only, but also' was the TV show. Really creative comedy. They kind of lost it on the 'Derek and Clive' records imho.

[racing33]

 A hopter fixer. That made me chuckle a little. Seriously that's cool.
Bruce

[ElCheapo]

Back on topic....

When I take a break from ranting,

I am a Portrait photographer, Motorcycle builder , and Own a motorcycle Salvage biz. Not that anyone would not know  .